The life of a samurai
was based on the philosophical thoughts of Zen Buddhism. For a student of
Zen, Zen has no meaning. For a master of Zen, Zen means everything but also
it means nothing. One must find their own
meaning of Zen. Zen cannot be taught as one could teach a sport or a
game. It must be
found within one's self. To begin the journey to find Zen,
one must first find a master that will take him in and learn the way to
his own Zen through the masters instruction and from observing his lifestyle.
Zen itself is a "koan", or a riddle. What is Zen? A Zen master would tell you, what isn't Zen? Then Zen must be everything? A master would quickly say, Zen is nothing. Zen is more of a lifestyle with unspecific boundaries and comes with years of discipline through instruction and through practice
Many Zen ideas and ideals are descendants of Buddhist thought. Zen however does not dwell on the religious beliefs of the afterlife. Another major difference is that Zen teaches emancipation from the outside world, outside of one's own body. Buddhism teaches the advancement of one's self through actions, whereas Zen advancement focuses on self-enlightenment. One thing they both share is Buddhism and Zen both teach a path of non-violence. One might ask: "How does this apply to life of the samurai?" The lifestyle and Zen and the profession of a Samurai seam to be contradictions of each other. Philosophically Zen does not work for the Samurai because of the teachings of non-violence and ideas of suffrage.
However morally and mentally Zen can help guide the life and the sword of a Samurai to help strike down an opponent who means to harm many or an accepted philosophical theory. Zen also teaches directive ness, simplicity, self-reliance, self-denial and teaches oneness with all activities and tools a student of Zen might use. Also Zen teaches one to never look back and pushes towards forward progress. A Samurai must be stoic, this is demonstrated by having nerves of steel. He should be flexible without being weak, and hard without being too stiff. A Samurai should neither focus on one's own weaknesses or strengths.
A sword in the hands of a Samurai is the Buddhist struggle of nirvana and samsara. To a follower of Zen such as a Samurai, the sword must be thought of as a struggle between life and death. A master knows that the sword means death, but if the Samurai has a conscience thought of death during a struggle, his mind will become filled with those thoughts and death will not be far away. A Samurai is trained to think a straight path to victory without any doubts along the way. This is a small part of understanding how a samurai uses Zen? Politically, Zen motivates and justifies a Samurai.
A sword to a Samurai
is the means of destroying all that stands in the way of peace, justice,
progress and humanity. The sword to the Samurai is a Zen tool to aid in
the path to directiveness and destroy whatever blocks the path to complete
Zen. However, at the same time if the Samurai becomes too fascinated with
the sword itself and the physical power it holds then he will become a captive
of his own fascination. The Buddhism ideal that this comes from is called
a delusion, or the stopping of mental progress due to infatuation with ignorance.
In battle a Samurai uses Zen to not only guide his path to victory, but
also to turn any opponent's tools of victory into his own demise. A saying
goes, "Wherever the mind is directed the whole person is liable to
follow and the enemy is sure to take full advantage of it." A spear
in the hands of the opponent can be his victory, but it can also mean his
own death. It all depends on the discipline of the wielder and the how well
he has mastered his Zen.
Zen can not only be used to master physical combat, but also in the mental
combat that underlines physical combat. Zen to a monk is a way of living
and thinking whereas Zen to a Samurai is about supreme concentration under
extreme conditions. Zen is the art of being at one with what you are and
what you are doing. This means doing everything out the subconscious and
perfecting doing the conscience unconsciencly. It is the art of doing without
having to think about doing it. For a swordsman, it takes years of practice
and mental conditioning to be able to perfect every factor in the art of
swordplay. A Samurai must never have something pre-planned because he will
become dependant on it. His dependency on that plan can be easily exploited
by an opponent. At the same time a Samurai must never let his mind become
empty. Another Zen teaching goes as follows: "Do not get your mind
'stopped' with the sword you raise. Forget what you are doing, and strike
the enemy. Do not keep your mind on the person who stands in front of you.
They are all of emptiness, but beware of your mind being caught up with
emptiness itself."
